Russia's human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said he's willing to meet with Snowden. "I want to hear him out and then think what should be done," he said.

"I think international organizations should take up this question. Snowden now is clearly in the situation of being a refugee from his country."

He "wishes to express his thoughts on the US campaign for his capture that has put other passengers heading to Latin America at risk as a result."

Snowden's letter to human rights groups said:

"I have been extremely fortunate to enjoy and accept many offers of support and asylum from brave countries around the world. These nations have my gratitude."

"Unfortunately, in recent weeks we have witnessed an unlawful campaign by officials in the US government to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

"The scale of threatening behavior is without precedent: never before in history have states conspired to force to the ground a sovereign President's plane to effect a search for a political refugee."

"This dangerous escalation represents a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America or my own personal security, but to the basic right shared by every living person to live free from persecution."

He's concerned about flying to Latin America safely. He believes his job is done. He asked human rights representatives "to petition the US and European states not to interfere with his asylum process."

He asked Vladimir Putin to intervene on his behalf. According to Duma MP Vyacheslav Nokonov, he "does not intend to harm the US in the future."

He told human rights representatives "(n)o actions (he took) or plan are meant to harm the US." He "want(s) the US to succeed," he said.

He doesn't rule out heading to Latin America. Travel dangers prevent him from doing so now.

According to RT, the "average wiretap" costs US taxpayers "$50,000." Telecom and Internet giants cash in handsomely. They've been doing it for years.

In 2009, former New York criminal prosecutor John Prather filed suit. He charged several telecom companies with charging exorbitant fees.

"They were monstrously more than what the telecoms could ever hope to charge for similar services in an open, competitive market, and the costs charged to the governments by telecoms did not represent reasonable prices as defined in the code of federal regulations," he said.

They do so through NSA's Prism. It gives the agency access to search histories, emails, file transfers and live chats. It's gotten directly from US provider servers. Doing so facilitates mass surveillance.

Google denied involvement, saying:

It "cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully."

"From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data."

Microsoft/NSA/FBI cooperation is longstanding. It's been ongoing "for many months." Access "means that analysts will no longer have to make a special request to SSO for this - a process step that many analysts may not have known about."

"(T)his new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response."

"This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established."

"The FBI Data Intercept Technology Unit (DITU) team is working with Microsoft to understand an additional feature in Outlook.com which allows users to create email aliases, which may affect our tasking processes."

Since 2011, NSA worked closely with Microsoft. It gained easy access to Skype. Personal audio and video communications can be monitored. Skype has about 663 million global users.

NSA shares information accessed with the FBI and CIA. America has 16 known intelligence agencies. On request, they all likely get what NSA collects.

It's long past time world leaders challenged what's intolerable to condone. Doing so would neutralize tactics no one should tolerate.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua spoke forthrightly. "The State Department and the government of the United States should know that Venezuela learned a long time ago and defeated pressures from any part of the world."

Venezuela offered Snowden asylum. It awaits his reply. US bullying complicates his plans. He remains in limbo.

He's unjustly called a traitor. America's long arm threatens him. It does so wherever he goes. He sacrificed financial security and personal freedom.

He'll live each day like his last. He deserves global support for many more.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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